Fred's photos from Wheaton Labs

I'm so glad you're back, and posting pictures again!

I'm super curious about the garden hugelbeds next to the Fisher Price house. What made it through the winter? All those fruit trees and such that we planted last summer (not the best time to plant things. . . )

Ditto!! Glad to have you back, Fred, with all the enchanting 'wildlife' ;)

Thanks Julia!
The fruit trees all seem to be doing great. I was a little worried because the apples never dropped their leaves in the fall. They made it through the winter and are doing well. The poppies seem to have universally died. Some of the sedums are popping up here and there. Many of the bulbs have bloomed this spring. A few of the maple seedlings Kelly planted even made it through the winter. Not sure what else we planted. I'll try and get some pics soon.

Thanks Nancy!

I have three photos of Shooting Star (Dodecatheon pulchellum). It is a short lived perennial that is growing all over basecamp and the lab. The first photo is of the flower. The second photo is of the basal leaves. The last photo is after the pollinators have done their thing. The flower stalk becomes erect and the drooping flower head points straight up to form the seed pod.

I'm glad to hear the fruit trees made it through the winter. The first one is the diciest, usually. Those shooting star leaves look sort of like an orchid.

Thanks for sharing!

Here's a couple of bubs that were some of the first blooms on the berms.

First is the Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus). The deer won't bother daffodils and if you plant them around your fruit trees, they are said to repel voles. Kai planted a bunch of these last fall and they came up everywhere.

The second and third photos are of the Imperial Fritillary (Fritillaria imperialis). These big showy blooms and bulbs have a kind of foxy smell that is said to repel mice, moles, rabbits and deer. Kelly Ware gave us these bulbs at the end of last summer, plus a few this spring. Thanks Kelly!

Thanks for this thread! I'm fairly new in Montana and it's been great reading through and getting a sense for the seasons and the growing things here.

This reply is referring back to the unidentified track photos 1/3 of the way down the 4th page of this thread. IMG_1661.JPG, IMG_1669.JPG & IMG_1673.JPG.

Fred Tyler wrote:I finally remembered to bring down the Scat and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains to compare it to some tracks i had seen earlier. It's a good book but the tracks are so variable i'm still not sure on the ID's for these tracks. Any ideas?

First photo: This is a bounding animal because there are two tracks on the outside, and two tracks a little behind and on the inside. The fronts land out and forward, usually parallel each other, and the hinds land inside and to the rear, usually staggered. You can tell they're rodent tracks because the front tracks (to the rear and center of the track group) have four toes each, while the hind tracks (to the front and outer edges of the track group) have five toes each. This toe pattern is only found in rodents. Then you can tell it's a squirrel because of size and general toe/heel pad shape. Finally it's a ground squirrel because the front tracks are asymmetrical and all the toes (front and hind) are curved inward. Folks around here would call it a gopher colloquially, though it's not actually a gopher (family Geomyidae), but a Columbian ground squirrel (family Sciuridae)

The second are chipmunk or mouse on the right (again, the bounding pattern tells us which tracks are front and hind, and the different toe counts between front/hind ID it as a rodent. Size, location and specific toe/heel pad shapes ID the species). The leftmost tracks are paired, as if the animal was bipedally hopping, and only have four toes (three in front and one behind) and therefore are a small ground-feeding bird, probably a sparrow or junco.

The third are really cool! These are very small tracks (about one inch wide), with no discernible pad, covered in fur (you can see the impression in the mud), very deep gripping claws, four toes and a lot of asymmetry in the toes. The outermost toes are much further toward the rear than the innermost toes. With this much asymmetry, and no discernible pad, just fur, it can't be a canid  like a fox or coyote. Red foxes do have furry feet but they're much bigger and have generally symmetrical feet. The only thing this could be, in my understanding, is the paired front feet of a cottontail rabbit in a bound.

Jennifer Bresee wrote:This reply is referring back to the unidentified track photos 1/3 of the way down the 4th page of this thread. IMG_1661.JPG, IMG_1669.JPG & IMG_1673.JPG.

Fred Tyler wrote:I finally remembered to bring down the Scat and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains to compare it to some tracks i had seen earlier. It's a good book but the tracks are so variable i'm still not sure on the ID's for these tracks. Any ideas?

First photo: This is a bounding animal because there are two tracks on the outside, and two tracks a little behind and on the inside. The fronts land out and forward, usually parallel each other, and the hinds land inside and to the rear, usually staggered.

Oops! I mistyped! It's the hind tracks that land out and forward, and the front tracks that land inside and to the rear.